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About

Lauren Grant is a pioneer in the emerging field of biohybrid robotics, where she engineers living skeletal muscle tissues to power soft, biological machines. Her research sits at the intersection of tissue engineering, biomaterials, and 3D printing, with a focus on creating controllable, living actuators. Grant’s most influential work, “Simulation and Fabrication of Stronger, Larger, and Faster Walking Biohybrid Machines” (110 citations), demonstrates how hydrogel scaffolds and muscle constructs can be optimized to generate greater force, enabling more robust bio-bots. She has also made critical contributions to understanding the durability and control of these systems. Her study “Damage, Healing, and Remodeling in Optogenetic Skeletal Muscle Bioactuators” (107 citations) explores how light-controlled muscle can adapt and repair, a key step toward resilient, responsive robots. Further advancing the field’s practicality, Grant led the first successful demonstration of long-term cryopreservation and revival of engineered skeletal muscle (41 citations), solving a major logistical barrier for off-the-shelf use. Her work on proteolytic degradation and life expectancy of these machines (34 citations) provides foundational knowledge for designing longer-lasting bio-actuators. Through her innovative combination of biology and engineering, Grant is laying the groundwork for a new generation of adaptive, living machines.